"I suspect that whatever cannot be said clearly is probably not being thought clearly either" --- Peter Singer. (Mea culpa.) See the entry in my Quotes blog.

Sunday, October 16, 2005

Brain Fitness Clubs

For a society that runs on intellect - this is the Information Age, they tell us, and We're All Knowledge Workers Now - it's curious that Brain Fitness Clubs haven't swept the nation. Honing and toning the body is a perennial fashion phenomenon. Yoga is big this year; last year it was Tae Bo. Beautiful Minds only apply to crazy economists, but everybody aspires to a Beautiful Body.

It's medically accepted that "use it or lose it" applies to the mind as well as the body. A regular program of training would improve mental performance just as it helps with physical well-being. It's easy to imagine an Oprah-ready offering; one can re-use all the tricks that health clubs have developed, like fitness assessments, group work-outs, personal trainers, expensive equipment, and a range of activities tailored to every taste. (There won't be much of a market for spandex accessories, though, and the top practitioners won't be very telegenic.) All it needs is a charismatic entrepreneur who's smart, sexy and a super-seller.

Mental fitness is already established in geriatrics, where Early Boomers buy what it takes to stave off the debilities, mental as well as physical, of old age. Cognitive training can reverse cognitive impairment in many seniors.

The mystery is why it hasn't shown up in the mainstream. Perhaps people feel that their work gives them enough mental exercise, and that they couldn't bear to do any more. However, in the days of farm labor, workers would turn to sport over the week-end and dances in the evenings.

Perhaps it's the association with school. Most people hated school, and mental training sounds too much like being back in class.

Perhaps its the belief that one doesn't need to learn how to think. We all know how to think, just like we know how to breathe and walk; we don't need classes on how to walk around, do we? (Actually, we do; cf. the Alexander Technique.) Sure, occasionally we need some one-off training in a new technique, but after that it's just application - right?

Western disinterest in regular training and study with a teacher of one's craft has always perplexed me. It is taken for granted in many Eastern traditions, whether in martial arts (the craft of killing people) or meditation (the craft of cultivating the mind).

Last but not least, it could be that the term "mental health" in fact connotes mental illness with all the stigmas that entails, whereas "physical health" is something that's a good in itself.

Currently, mental fitness is either a private, personal activity (crossword puzzles, sudoku) or a social one grounded in the humanities (book clubs, philosophical discussions).

However, outsourcing and offshoring are rubbing American noses in the prospect of being put out of their job by smart young aliens. It won't be long before a canny entrepreneur figures out how to franchise getting yourself a supple and sexy mind. Some elements of the offering:

3 comments:

I recall that this is a good business in India to attract students by saying that with better brain power they could do well in competitive examinations. One very popular course is http://www.mindmachinelab.com/ It has some good techniques like memory maps. It also has an audio cassette which will improve the concentration just by listening to it :)

I guess it depends on what qualifies as a mental fitness club, no? The plus 40 crowd is heading back to colleges in droves. They are behind the huge growth in the learning vacation market (such as the offerings of Road Scholar http://www.roadscholar.org). Books and audio tapes are selling better than ever before. There's thousands of new bloggers setting up communities focused on specifics topics of interest. Podcasts are exploding.

The VC market around here is pretty hot on the topic as long as its tied to a serious ailment. There's a whole new sector focusing on neuroscience and its entreprenurial opptys, but it has much more of a disease orientation than I think your comment intends.http://www.neurotechreports.com/pages/neuroventuresprofile.html